


Love, from Nico

by Bad_boy_supreme_on_fire



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Sibling Bonding, and it's really sweet, it's not hazel, nico acts like a big brother, solangelo, transgender character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-29
Packaged: 2018-03-23 10:02:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3763963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bad_boy_supreme_on_fire/pseuds/Bad_boy_supreme_on_fire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico realizes he can't stay in Camp half blood and needs to leave for a while, just to get away and be alone. he doesn't return in six months.<br/>when he does return, he establishes an unexpected friendship with a new child of Ares, and gets to experience all over again how it's like to be a big brother.<br/>Solangelo and sibling-bonding, enjoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Promise you'll be back

“Will?” Nico asked, looking up at him from their place on the couch in cabin 13. Will’s answer was a soft murmur down in Nico’s hair.

“Can I talk to you about something?” Nico proceeded, and got off his boyfriend’s lap to sit next to him instead, in order to look at him. He took Will’s hand, afraid that he would feel like Nico was trying to get away from him.

“’Course you can, darlin’”.

He said it in a light tone, but the look in his eyes had changed to worry once the question had been spoken. Nico was still not sure how to explain what was on his mind, but he knew he couldn’t go through with his decision without telling Will about it.

He searched his mind for a place to start.

“Okay, first: this has absolutely nothing to do with you, it’s something about me. And I’m not breaking up with you, so don’t think that”.

He added the last part after seeing Will’s badly hidden horrified expression. When he looked a little calmer, Nico continued.

“So the thing is; I’ve been here for a lot longer now than I’ve been before… and it’s also a lot longer than I’m really used to staying in one place. You noticed that I’ve been kinda…” Nico searched for the right word. “…absentminded and short-tempered and stuff lately, and I figured it’s because I need a break”.

He paused, trying to read Will’s expression. That was a difficult task, though.

“I need a break from this place and from… people in general. I just feel like I need to get away for a while and I really, really just need to be alone”.

It was hard to see how Will was processing the information, as his expression was still unreadable.

“So what I’m really saying, is that I’ve decided to leave tomorrow night. It’s just for a little while, a few weeks or maybe two months tops, I’m not sure”.

He let this new decision sink in, and watched as Will’s eyes went from unreadable to questioning to a heartbreaking shade of hurt.

“But… you just made this decision without me?”

Nico was prepared for this, although he’d expected Will’s reaction to be more angry, that he wouldn’t look this devastated. Nico would have preferred the anger.

“It’s not your decision to make, Will. You’re the one who nagged me about starting to take care of myself and think about what _I_ needed. That’s what I’m doing right now. Because I _need_ this”.

Will was quiet for a while. Nico bit his lip nervously, wondering what he was going to say. He prayed to every god he could think of that Will wouldn’t break up with him because of this.

“So you’re leaving tomorrow night?”

Nico nodded.

“We have one more day together before you leave, and might be gone for months?”

He nodded again. Will looked frustrated, and he was frowning.

“But _why_? Why do you have to leave, can’t you just… I don’t know, camp out in Bunker 9 for a while or take a trip to the roman camp or something?”

“No, it doesn’t work like that. I need to get away, I need to travel somewhere and I need time with myself. Alone, another place”.

Will looked down at his lap, and Nico was desperate to make him understand.

“It doesn’t mean that I don’t love you, Will. You know I do, and I’m not leaving because I want a break from _you_. I really need you to understand this”.

When Will looked up, his blue eyes looked like dancing water from the tears forming in them.

“I understand, I just don’t want you to leave”. He tugged at Nico’s hand and pulled him over to sit between Will’s legs again, where Will buried his face in his hair.

“You have to promise me to be safe. And that you’ll be back”.

“I promise”.

***

The night after, Nico waited until he was sure Will was asleep before he carefully slipped out of the bed. He got dressed, took his aviator jacked off the peg on the wall and put it on. He then strapped his Stygian Iron sword to his side and slipped his shoes on, careful not to make too much noise.

Will was snoring softly on the bed, oblivious to the fact that his boyfriend was about to leave. Nico gently tugged a little curl of blond hair behind his ear and kissed his forehead.

When he pulled back, Will captured his hand, and the boy’s eyes were suddenly open. He didn’t say anything, but his eyes were begging Nico to stay.

“See you soon, Will. I love you”.

Will let Nico’s hand slip away, and Nico left before he could change his mind.


	2. Rainbows, skeletons and notes

Nico didn’t return to camp in almost six months.

He did keep in touch, though. Five days after he left, Will found himself almost walking right into the Iris message that had suddenly appeared in front of him.

“Hey, Will”.

Nico was smiling at him from the other side of the message, and Will had been so surprised it had taken him several seconds to reply.

“Nico!”

His arms ached to hug him, but of course, he knew it wasn’t possible.

“Where are you?”

“This,” Nico gestured to the little brick-houses behind him decorated with all kinds of flowers and plants, with green mountains and blue sky in the background. “…is Italy. I’ve been looking for my old house, and I don’t think I’m that far away, actually. Only problem is I can’t remember all that well how it looks like”.

“Italy, huh?” Will grinned.

“Yeah… couldn’t resist, you know?”

Nico shot a glance to his left before returning to the rainbow.

“Listen, I just wanted to say hi, and I can’t talk much longer. There are a few people looking at me like I’m some crazy murderer. You know, I look like death and talk to a fountain”.

Will felt the disappointment like a heavy rock in his stomach, but he nodded.

“Okay. But you’ll keep in touch more, right?”

“Of course I will. But I need to go. See you”.

“Bye, Neeks”.

Will gave a little smile, and then Nico was gone.

 

Two weeks later Will received another Iris message, and Nico was in New Zealand of all places. This message was even shorter than the last one, and the last Will saw of it was Nico stopping mid-sentence and drawing his sword while something huge and scaly blocked Will’s vision. Then the message was gone.

Will almost went out of his mind of worry. He couldn’t bring himself to eat dinner that night, he couldn’t sit still and he couldn’t sleep. Cecil and Lou Ellen tried their best to comfort him, but they were as unsuccessful as anyone else.

After breakfast the next morning, Will sat in the infirmary, fanatically tapping a pen against the table while staring out into nothing. It was Annabeth who came in and snapped him out of the trance.

“Uh, Will?”

He blinked before focusing on the girl in front of him.

“Yeah?”

“There’s a… something here to see you, I think”.

Will frowned.

“What?”

Annabeth just shrugged and looked as confused as Will felt.

“Come see for yourself. It’s got a note for you”.

A note. Maybe it was from Nico.

Will ran after Annabeth to the door leading outside, then stopped dead in his tracks. Sitting on a rock outside the infirmary, was a skeleton bird. At least that was Will’s conclusion of the creature, and in it’s beak was a little folded piece of paper. When the bird-thingy saw Will it flew over, – he had no idea how it did it, considering it didn’t have any feathers – dropped the note in front of him and disappeared into the woods.

Will didn’t let the little piece of paper reach the ground before he caught it. His name was written on it with the beautiful, old-fashioned hand writing Will would recognize anywhere. He unfolded it, and read.

 

_I’m all right. The monster was a hydra, and it destroyed the rest of my drachmas so I had to be creative. I don’t know how the bird flies, it just does. Hope you get this message._

_Love, Nico_

 

After almost three more weeks, another note came, this time with a much larger bird. Maybe it was once an eagle or something. After reading the note, Will couldn’t stop jumping around camp with a huge grin plastered to his face all day.

 

_Will_

_I’m heading home today, might take a few days since I’ve shadow travelled a lot lately. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine._

_See you in a few days._

_Nico_

 

Will waited those few days. Then he waited a few more. Then another week. There was no sign of Nico until two weeks after his announcement.

Panicked screams filled the otherwise quiet day at the camp, and Will – along with pretty much all the rest of the campers – ran outside to find the source. It wasn’t hard to notice it, but Will didn’t believe his own eyes; a huge skeleton of a dinosaur – if Will remembered correctly it was a pterodactyl, one of those flying things – was circling the area, obviously searching for something.

Will was still stunned that this was an actual flying dinosaur, but he wasn’t surprised that it dived for the ground when it spotted him, landing a few feet away. It just stood there, not acting very dinosaur-y, and waited until Will had removed the paper from its beak with trembling hands, terrified it would bite his fingers right off.

It didn’t, though, it just took to the air again and disappeared over the trees.

The stunned silence was lying thick over the entire camp, and every single pair of eyes were looking at Will. He felt a little self-conscious standing there with the note in his hand, but then he remembered _he actually had a note in his hand_ , and quickly unfolded it.

His heart sank all the way down to the ground as he read.

 

_Will_

_First: I’m sorry if the pterodactyl scared anyone, I’m experimenting and it’s kind of fun._

_Second: I’m really, really, really sorry, but I can’t come home yet. My father is in a shitty mood, and is making me do some stupid business for him I can’t tell you about because he would kill me and sentence me to eternal punishment. At least if he continues being like this._

_I honestly don’t know when I’m coming home, this can take weeks – and that is if I’m lucky._

_I’m so sorry, and I miss you a lot._

_Nico_

 

After that, Will didn’t get any more notes. He often found himself sitting in the strawberry fields, searching the sky for any kind of skeletal bird or dinosaur or whatever. But nothing came.

Four months passed without a single sign that Nico was coming home, or that he was even alive.

 

***

 

When the shadows released him, Nico found himself in the first truly familiar place he’d seen in six months. He was standing at the very edge of the forest, looking between the cabins and the mess hall.

He was relieved to finally be home – he hadn’t expected to be gone for so long – but he wished he could skip all the attention he knew he was going to receive, especially from his friends.

At least he hadn’t overslept. It was still very early in the morning, and Nico had chosen this hour to arrive because he knew that only the Apollo-cabin woke up this early. If he was lucky, he could find Will without having to walk past dozens of curious kids.

He knew he’d changed a lot over the past months, and he doubted the new kids would be the only ones to stare.

He started walking over the grass towards the cabins. No one seemed to be up yet, and Nico wondered if he should knock or just wait until Will came out. That problem solved itself before he had arrived at the cabin, though, as the tall, blue-eyed boy with his mop of blond hair who Nico loved more than anyone stepped out of the Apollo-cabin.

They both stopped when they saw each other, neither of them believing that the other one was actually _there_ , in real life, after so many months. Then the few yards that separated them vanished and Will was there, warm and safe and real, and he was hugging Nico and crying, and Nico would be flat out lying if he would say he didn’t do the same.

Neither of them said anything, unable to produce anything sensible to say. Nico felt Will’s shoulders shaking, felt tears soak his shirt, and heard him croak out the first words either of them had said for several minutes.

“I’ve missed you, I’ve missed you, I’ve missed you…”

Nico couldn’t find his voice. He took a step back in order to cup Will’s face in his hands, wiping away tears with his thumbs. Nico just looked at him, and no matter how gross Will probably looked from crying, he couldn’t see it.

Nico could just see his beautiful eyes, his cute freckles, his soft skin, his adorable curls and his perfect smile. Will reached up to wipe away Nico’s own tears, and his hand didn’t leave his cheek when he was done.

They stood there for what seemed like forever, just drinking in the sight of each other. In the end, Will shook his head a little and smiled.

“Gods, you’ve changed”, he said.

It was true. Nico had had a massive growth spurt while he’d been away. He’d grown at least three inches – so had his hair, which he’d collected in a little messy ponytail – and Will was barely any taller than him at all. Somewhere along the way, he’d also decided to get piercings; two silver rings in his right ear and one in his left eyebrow.

Will couldn’t see it now, but he’d also grown quite fond of makeup. Not lipstick and mascara, mind you, but in the last week before being dragged along to do his father’s dirty work, he had actually started marking his eyes with eyeliner. That hadn’t been his priority on his little quest, though, so he didn’t wear any today.

“Yeah,” he said, a little self-conscious. “Guess I have”.

Will just smiled and traced a light finger right above his eyebrow and silver piercing.

“I love it”, he said. “I love _you_ ”.

And suddenly they were kissing, and it almost felt like a first kiss. It was warm and deep and intense and absolutely wonderful. Nico forgot everything about where he was or even what century he was in. If someone had asked him right then, he wouldn’t be able to answer right away.

“Nico!”

They broke apart when someone called Nico’s name – he couldn’t believe someone had the nerve to do that, as he was _clearly_ busy with Will and could call skeletons on anyone, but he looked around for the source. Jason was running towards him, Piper right behind.

“Oh no”, Nico groaned, before he was tackled by Jason. Piper flung herself around both of them, and they were hugging the life out of him.

“Guys…” he tried, but didn’t get any further before they were all knocked to the ground, and Nico could only guess it was Percy’s fault. Annabeth was there soon after, too, and they were all bombarding him with questions. He didn’t answer any of them though, as he could barely breathe, something they seemed to notice eventually.

In any case they climbed off, and Percy gave him a hand to help him up. After he’d gained his balance and the world had stopped spinning, Nico looked at his friends.

“Don’t do that again”, he said, rubbing his shoulder where Jason had crushed him. They all grinned.

“Sorry, Nico”.

“But you really can’t expect anything less when you’ve been gone for six months”.

“And stopped sending dinosaurs four months ago”.

Nico lit up a little at the mention of his (* _cough_ *, genius, * _cough_ *) invention, and he turned to Will.

“So you got them?” he asked, and Will found his hand.

“Yeah. The last one was a little frightening, though”.

Nico grinned sheepishly.

“Sorry. But it didn’t do anything, right?”

“No, it was a very well-behaved dinosaur”.

Nico laughed a little.

“I found a t-rex too, actually, but I decided against it. Figured it would probably attract a little too much attention, and I wasn’t sure if I could convince it not to eat you”.

“You’re so thoughtful”.

“But seriously, Nico,” Piper interrupted. “We want to know what you’ve been doing!”

“Yeah, where have you been?” Jason asked, but Nico held up his hand to stop the questions.

“Guys, I’m seriously tired right now, okay? I really need some sleep before you interrogate me”. He looked at Will. “You wanna come?”

“You couldn’t keep me away”, Will grinned.

 

Nico quickly found his pajamas and climbed into the bed next to Will, snuggling up to him and wrapping his arms around his chest. He gave a little hum of pleasure when Will started stroking his hair, and he was snoring softly after just a few minutes.

Will didn’t care that he hadn’t even had breakfast yet. After so long, he wouldn’t trade this moment for anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> does anyone like Nico's skeleton mail invention?   
> because I do  
> and just for the record, there is not a giant skeleton dinosaur flying around the US, it's back in the ground, sorry


	3. Missed being back

Nico started stirring a few hours later, and his eyes soon fluttered open. When he realized he was draped across Will’s chest, he looked a little confused at first but then smiled sleepily.

“Hey”, he said, resting his chin on Will’s shoulder.

“Mornin’ sleepyhead”, Will replied with a grin. Nico swatted his shoulder and murmured something in a sleepy voice.

“What?”

“Wha’ time is it?” he asked again, and Will looked at his watch.

“Lunch is in half-an-hour”.

“Shit”, Nico groaned. “I didn’t even let you eat breakfast, did I?”

“Nah, but that’s alright. I’d rather stay here with ya”.

“But now you’re gonna eat lunch”.

Nico pulled himself out of the bed and stretched.

“I could really need a shower. Be with you in fifteen minutes, okay?”

“I’ll just stay right here”, Will said and pulled the covers up to his chin, even though he was the one who had slept all night.

 

When Nico emerged from the bathroom fifteen minutes later, there was something different about him. Will frowned and tried to find out what it was. When he noticed, he grinned.

“Didn’t know you’d started wearing makeup, di Angelo”, he teased.

Nico looked a little uncomfortable, so Will walked over and took his hand.

“It’s nice”, Will reassured him. “C’mon. Let’s get lunch”.

Nico tensed up when they emerged from the cabin, as Camp Half-blood was suddenly swarming with kids compared to how it was this morning. He knew most of them from before, of course, but he hadn’t thought about all the new kids that would have arrived during the last months.

As he and Will walked past them, it looked like most of them didn’t quite know whether to be intimidated or curious. Nico would really have preferred to slip through the shadows unnoticed, but he just concentrated on Will’s familiar hand in his as they made their way to the mess hall.

Unfortunately, Will was not allowed to sit at the famous ‘Big three table’, so Nico walked over alone to sit across from Percy and Jason, who were already there. They both looked up, and their glance immediately turned curious.

Percy frowned and leaned forward slightly.

“Don’t tell me, I want to figure this out”, he said, studying Nico’s face. “There’s something different, right?”

Jason was now studying him curiously, too.

“Yeah, there’s definitely something different”.

“Maybe it’s just that we haven’t seen him in six months.”

“Or that he took a shower. You looked kinda gross this morning, Nico”.

Nico rolled his eyes so far back in his head it hurt.

“Okay, it’s definitely not his attitude, that’s the same. Guess it wouldn’t have been visible anyway”, Jason said, and the second later, realization hit Percy.

“Oh, he’s wearing makeup!” he blurted out, not bothering to keep it down. Nico hid his face in one of his hands, groaning as he felt about every camper’s eyes on him.

“You can’t just say that a little louder?” he hissed. “I don’t think my father heard you”.

“Oh”. Percy had the wits to lower his voice. “Sorry. I think it suits you, though”.

Jason nodded. “Yeah, it does. Makes you look kind of… intense. In a good way”.

“Thanks”, Nico mumbled, and got up to scoop a part of his food in the fire before returning to the table.

 

People came up to him during the rest of the day, welcoming him back, asking where he’d been and what he’d been doing. He tried his best to be polite and answer some of the questions, but mostly he just excused himself and found a quiet place he and Will could sit and just enjoy each other’s company.

At the campfire that night, Chiron called for everyone’s attention.

“Quiet, please”. He waited for all the conversations to die down before he continued. “I’m sure at least most of you have already noticed, but I would like to officially welcome back Nico di Angelo-” He turned to Nico, who tried to make himself as small as possible against Will’s chest. “- after being away for nearly six months. We’re all glad you made it back safely, and I can tell you your friends have missed you. Will here has been almost unbearable”.

Nico turned to look up at Will, who smiled and planted a kiss on his lips before he could protest. Someone started clapping their hands and wolf whistling – Nico assumed it was Percy and Jason – and soon, most of the campers joined in on the applause. There was an amused look in the old centaur’s eyes as he gave a little smile, and then signaled for everyone to continue doing whatever they’d had going before he interrupted.

Nico hadn’t realized how much he’d actually missed the campfires – although he would rather not admit it. People were having a good time; the fire was bright yellow and rose more than ten feet up in the air and the Apollo cabin lead the sing-along – except for Will, who had refused to leave Nico’s side once he could get a hold of him. Nico didn’t complain, though, he had a very comfy spot wrapped up in Will’s arms.

Jason filled him in on what had happened at camp during the time Nico had been away. There weren’t many eventful happenings, but when he started talking about the 4th of July fireworks and ‘the beyond awesome party that would have been the Olympians worthy’ he and Percy had thrown afterwards, Nico suddenly realized something.

“Oh no”, he exclaimed and sat up.

“What’s wrong?” Will asked, the concern thick in his voice. Nico turned around and looked at him.

“I missed your birthday”.

He had already decided with himself to be back by Will’s birthday before he left, but his stupid father had ruined everything and made him miss it. Will, who had thought it was something far worse, gave a relieved smile.

“That’s okay, Sunshine. It wasn’t your fault”, he assured him, but Nico still wasn’t happy with himself.

“No, but it was your 18th birthday and I really wanted to be there. I had planned for it and everything”, Nico complained and mentally cursed himself for not even sending him a note.

“Really?” Will asked in surprise. “Didn’t know you were much of a planner-type”.

“I’m not, it was just this once”. Nico shrugged and looked down. “I just wanted you to have a special birthday”.

When Will’s fingers found his chin, Nico gave in to the gentle pull and looked at him.

“You can make it up to me next year”, Will said. He didn’t give his boyfriend any chance to protest before locking his lips over Nico’s.

Will really processed the power to make him forget everything about where he was, especially when he was caught off guard like this. The way Will’s lips and tongue moved so graciously against his own made him completely dizzy, and he didn’t realize he had let out an embarrassing moan until Will pulled away, and Nico saw Jason and Percy trying their best not to laugh out loud. He hoped the night was dark enough to hide most of the color that was rising in his cheeks.

“Another time”, Will whispered, which didn’t help with the blushing at all.

 

A few people started leaving, and so did Nico and Will. Nico was still tired after all his shadow travelling, so Will followed him back to the cabins. They were just talking casually as they walked, and as Nico opened the door to cabin 13 and they were about to enter, a voice interrupted their conversation.

“Will Solace!”

They both turned around and saw Chiron standing behind them, his arms crossed and a stern look on his face.

“You know the rule, both of you”.

It took a second before it dawned on Will what he was talking about. Wops.

“Oh, right”.

He scratched the back of his neck nervously.

“Uh, sorry, just eh… forgot”.

Chiron didn’t look impressed with his excuse. It didn’t take long for him to establish the rule that denied both boys and girls to be alone in a cabin with others than their respective siblings after Nico and Will started dating.

However, of course, they always sneaked around that rule as Nico simply shadow travelled Will over after everyone were asleep. They had just forgotten that part at the moment, though.

“Uh, night Nico!”

Will gave him a short peck on the cheek and used the opportunity to whisper “later”, just loud enough for Nico to hear it. He then let go of his hand, hurried away and disappeared inside his own cabin.

 

As Will had expected, Nico emerged from the shadows beside his bed a few hours later, took his hand, and shadow travelled them both back to the Hades cabin.

“I still wish there was another way to do this”, Will said after studying Nico’s face to see if he was alright.

“Well, there isn’t, so don’t complain”, Nico answered with an eye-roll.

“I’m not –”

“Just shut up”, Nico said before crashing their lips together.

 _Finally_ some privacy. Will responded immediately and guided them down on the bed so that he was straddling Nico’s hips with his legs. Lips and tongues and teeth were just one lovely mess, and Will didn’t take long to pull off Nico’s shirt, then his own. When he looked down at his boyfriend’s exposed chest, he realized that _those six months had done him well_.

He was still skinny, but a lot more muscular and defined. Will made a needing sound in the back of his throat, and his hands started exploring this new body as his mouth found Nico’s perfect jawline and sucked on the skin, moving further and further down his neck.

It was Nico’s turn to make noise. He always did, and the reason they had never actually had sex while at camp was because he was a little too loud. Will’s teeth and tongue were relishing the soft, sweet skin on his collarbone, and Nico whimpered his name as Will pressed himself down on his lap.

Nico could feel his hard cock against his own erection, and he tried but failed to keep quiet.

“If we’re gonna do this, you gotta keep it down, darlin’”, Will mumbled against his skin, which just drew another moan from Nico.

“I-I don’t think I can”, Nico panted out. If he couldn’t control it now, he would definitely be screwed when they got their underwear off. Will stopped a little to think, then fished his shirt off the floor and handed it to Nico.

“Bite this”.

Nico took the shirt and bit down on it as Will started fumbling with his belt.

He actually managed to keep quiet until Will had two slicked fingers inside him, stretching him. When he added a third, Nico couldn’t hold back the loud groan that was luckily muffled by Will’s shirt.

“You’re doin’ great, darlin’”, Will whispered. “Ready?”

Nico nodded, and Will’s fingers were soon replaced by his cock, carefully pushing inside him. Nico was clutching Will’s arms, almost crying out when he started thrusting inside him.

“Quiet, Neeks”, Will reminded him, but that was not an easy task when his boyfriend’s cock was deep inside him, moving at exactly the right pace and exactly the right angle, truly making Nico question whether he was in Elysium or not.

When Will came inside him with a strangled moan, Nico couldn’t hold back any longer, and cried out into Will’s shirt as he came. Will waited a bit before he pulled out, and Nico could finally let go of the shirt in his mouth.

“That,” Will said as he dropped down on the bed next to Nico, “was amazing”.

“Can’t argue with that”. Nico made a grimace. “You don’t think anyone heard, do you?”

When they had done it for the first time at Will’s house when the rest of his family was out, Nico was pretty sure the neighbors had heard him. If they had mentioned it to Will’s mom, at least she hadn’t said anything.

Will just smiled and nuzzled his cheek.

“Nah. You were great, and the shirt worked didn’t it?”

“Yeah”.

He snuggled up to Will’s chest, but the blond gently pushed him away.

“We should go clean up”.

Nico groaned, but eventually agreed.

When they were done, they almost collapsed on top of each other on the bed, falling asleep in seconds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry if the smut part was bad  
> I'm sorry if anything was bad, really  
> but I hope you like^^  
> leave a comment<3


	4. Interrogation

“I have decided to set you up for teaching sword fight to the youngest children. How does that sound to you?”

Nico looked at Chiron almost in shock.

“You want me to teach those little kids? The _new_ kids?” he asked in disbelief. “You don’t think they’ll, I don’t know, start screaming and run away when they see me?”

“I think they are actually more curious about you than frightened”, Chiron offered. “But of course, we’ll have to see how it works out. If you agree to do this, though, it allows us to split up Percy and Jason’s group, since it is starting to get a little too much for them, I think”.

“But I’ve never tried to teach anyone sword fighting before, especially not little kids. What if I’m really bad at it?”

“Oh, I think you’ll be an excellent teacher, Nico”, Chiron said cheerfully and patted his back. “Just show up in the arena after breakfast and we’ll see what happens”.

Then he left for the mess hall to eat breakfast, and Nico stood on the grass staring after him.

“’See what happens’. Good plan”, he muttered to himself as he put his hands back in his pockets and made his way to his table.

 

Jason and Percy were already there when Nico arrived at the arena after breakfast and they gave him a happy wave.

“Hey, di Angelo! Ready to teach some wicked fighting-skills?” Percy grinned.

“Er… sure. But I was kinda thrown into this less than an hour ago, so I have no idea what to do”.

“You’ll be fine”, Jason assured him. “You’re getting the freshest kids, so just show them basics and how not to stab each other on accident and stuff”.

“Right”, Nico said, although he wasn’t really convinced about this ‘you’ll be fine’-stuff.

When all the kids had arrived, Percy got everyone’s attention. “Okay, so from now on we’ll divide you guys into two groups, as we’ve got a new brilliant teacher for you;” He pulled Nico forward to stand next to him. “So this is Nico di Angelo, he’s the mysterious guy who arrived yesterday for those who haven’t met him before”.

Nico sent Percy a hard glare he chose to ignore.

“Anyway,” Percy continued, “those of you- dam, Nico how did you get this _tall_?”

Of course, Percy was still the tallest, but Nico had caught up with him and was only about two inches shorter (huge improvement). Percy had chosen this moment of all to notice it, and Nico rolled his eyes.

“Stick to your speech, Jackson”.

“Right”.

Percy continued where he’d left off, and listed the names of those who would get Nico as a teacher – _poor kids_ , Nico thought – and he was given a part of the arena where they’d practice.

There were eight kids in his group: Lillian, Hayley, Ted, Audrey, Richard, Emmet, Peace and Sonya. Nico was actually good with names, so that was not a problem, but when he now stood in front of these eight kids he’d never seen before and was expected to teach them something, he had no idea what to say.

“So...” he started awkwardly. “I guess you all arrived here in the last six months, right?”

Some of the kids nodded.

“Can any of you tell me how much you’ve actually learned?” Nico asked, and to his relief, the boy named Emmet raised his hand.

“Yeah?”

“Just some basic strikes and how to block and stuff,” he said, and Nico nodded.

“Okay, so I think we’ll just start from the beginning and see from there. Uh, any questions before we start?”

The girl named Audrey raised her hand. She was easily the youngest; she didn’t look more than eight or nine. Nico gestured for her to ask her question.

“Is it true that you were born in the 40’s?” she asked as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Nico stared at her dumbfounded. How did she know? Hayley suddenly spoke up, too.

“And that you can raise skeletons and zombies?”

“Um…” Nico said intelligibly. This wasn’t what he’d prepared for. “Yes…”

“Wicked!” Audrey exclaimed.

“Do you have a zombie chauffeur?”

“Can you shadow travel?”

“Why are you wearing makeup?”

“Is Will your boyfriend?”

“Did you travel through Tartarus?”

“Is it true that you killed a man just by looking at him?”

“That’s enough!” Nico barked, and the flood of questions stopped. Nico made a mental note to kill Percy and Jason if they were the ones who’d been telling these kids things.

“I’m not answering any more questions that’s not related to what we’re actually supposed to do”.

Those kids could really drop his mood far in very little time. Everyone went silent.

“Good”, Nico said bitterly. “I’ll help you find a sword”.

He led them to the weapons storage room and helped each of them find a sword that was at least somewhat balanced. The only one he had a problem with was Audrey. Most of the swords were way too big for her, and not properly balanced in her hand at all.

“You’d actually do better with a dagger, I think,” he told her, “but I can’t teach you anything about that”.

“What do I do, then?” she asked and looked at him. Nico was surprised that she didn’t have any problem looking him in the eye at all, as most people – at least those who didn’t know him – looked away after few seconds.

He thought about it for a few moments, then made a decision. He took his own sword from his side and handed it to Audrey.

“Try this”, he said, and the little girl looked surprised. “I think I was about your size when I made it, so it should fit better than the others, at least”.

“Wow”.

She looked stunned for a moment when she took it, and then her face lit up in a huge smile, showing a gap where she was missing a tooth.

“Thanks!”

She actually managed to draw a little smile from Nico.

“Did you make this?” She asked.

“Yes. Now get out of here, we have training to do”, he said – but without any bitterness – before she could ask any more questions, and ushered her and the others back to the arena.

 

The training itself didn’t go as bad as Nico had feared. He could have ended up with a much worse bunch of kids, because these were nice enough and weren’t too bad on the fighting side either.

At first, he was a little worried about having lend his sword to a nine-year old and had to remind Audrey to be careful not to stab her partner by accident.

“Do you want me to find you another sword?” he asked, arms crossed as the girl had started fooling around and waving Nico’s sword around like a lunatic in front of her partner. When Audrey noticed he was standing behind them, she froze and turned around to face him with a sort of wry, excusing grin.

“No…”

“Then stop doing that. If you hurt someone with that sword, it could be really serious”.

“Sorry… it’s just a really cool sword”, Audrey said and Sonya, her partner, nodded in agreement.

“It’s not gonna be so cool if you kill your friend”, Nico said harshly, and turned away to proceed giving instructions.

Upon noticing Peace and Ted’s poor footwork, he called the attention of the class to prevent the all from tripping over each other.

“You guys need to keep your feet apart”, he instructed while showing what he meant.

“If you stand on one line like this,” He gestured for Richard, who was the most strongly built of the kids, to stand with his feet on one line. “- a small push to one of your sides, and you’re out of balance and pretty much dead in a fight”.

He showed by giving the boy’s shoulder a light push, and he was out of balance immediately.

“If you put your foot here,” Nico moved Richard’s left foot a little away from his imagined line, “- you’re strong both ways”.

He pushed his shoulder a little harder, and the boy stood. Nico looked around at the class.

“See the difference?” Most of them nodded, but Lillian and Hayley were snickering from something. Nico glared at them, and they stopped.

“What’s funny?” he demanded, and they glanced at something behind him. Just when he was about to turn around, two arms snaked around his waist and made him jump embarrassingly high.

“Hey”, Will said in his ear, and when Nico turned around that idiot had a huge grin plastered to his face. He looked annoyingly amused. Nico scowled and pushed him away.

“Will, you’re such an… _idiot_!”

Will even had the nerve to stand there shirtless, with his orange T-shirt in his hand. Nico took it and swatted his arm with it, and Will just laughed at him while trying to protect himself.

“You can’t just sneak up on me like that, you complete moron, Will!”

“No, Nico…ouch!” Will was laughing while trying to reason with him. “Please, have mercy!”

Nico eventually gave up on hitting Will with his T-shirt, and settled for crossing his arms and scowling at him instead.

“Geez, Death Boy, I was just saying hi”, Will teased.

“Don’t you even dare call me that again”, Nico threatened. “And you could have said hi without sneaking up on me”.

“I figured I’d be safe since you didn’t have your sword this time, but I guess I was wrong”.

Nico started pushing him out of the arena, as he wasn’t keen on embarrassing himself any further.

“Don’t you have any patients to heal, Solace? I’m sure they need your annoying ass up in the infirmary”.

“But you love my ass”, Will pouted, ad Nico growled in frustration.

“Fuck off Will, there are kids are standing right there”.

“Language, darlin’”.

“ _Go away_!”

“Wow, you really don’t want me here?”

“No I don’t, I’m _teaching_ ”.

“Fine, fine, I’ll go. Just one thing”.

Nico sighed. “What?”

Will quickly leaned down and kissed him.

“Will!”

Nico was about to push him away, but he had already hurried off, chuckling. Nico glared at his back as he jogged towards the infirmary.

“Love ya, Nico!” Will called back, and Nico rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah”, he grumbled to himself as he turned back to his class. He knew he was probably blushing hard, and hopefully it wasn’t that visible under his olive colored skin. They all looked like they were going to break down laughing any second.

“The first one who laughs will do dishes tonight with the Harpies while everyone else are eating marshmallows at the campfire”.

That effectively wiped the grins off their faces. Nico checked his watch and saw that, to his relief, the class was over.

“Right, class is over. You can, like…” Nico awkwardly waved them off with his hand. “…go”.

They all went to put their swords back in the storage room, and Audrey ran over to him and handed him the one she’d borrowed. Nico had almost forgotten about it.

“Thanks, Nico”, she smiled.

“No problem. I’ll ask Leo to make you another one you can use next time”.

Audrey didn’t leave, she just looked at him.

“What?” Nico asked in the end.

“So Will _is_ your boyfriend?” she asked, and Nico groaned inwardly. Were they doing the question stuff again?

“Yes.”

“Since when?”

“Since a year and a half”.

“When did you find out you were gay?”

“Uh… don’t know. Around your age”.

“How did you come out?”

Nico looked at her innocent expression and wondered where on earth she was going with this.

“Well, uh… the first time Cupid kinda forced me to admit it to Jason…”

“The god?”

“Yes”.

“Why did he do that? Isn’t that mean?”

“Don’t know. Cupid’s an asshole who enjoys ruining people’s lives”.

“You said ‘first’?”

“Yeah, the second time I just told the guy I’d had a crush on. And then everyone knew after that”.

“Oh. Who did you crush on?”

“Percy”.

“Percy Jackson?”

“Mhm”.

Audrey looked thoughtful for a moment.

“If there’s nothing else, I kinda need to go and find Will”, Nico said, eager to get out before she started asking more questions.

“Oh. Okay, bye!” she said, and just ran off towards Sonya who stood waiting by the storage room.

That was probably the strangest kid Nico had ever met.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> does Audrey remind you a bit about young Nico?
> 
> kids are terrible when they start asking questions


	5. Little sister

After that, Audrey continued talking to him.

Nico didn’t really know why, but he liked this little child of Ares (yes, you heard him). She wasn’t an asshole-like child of Ares, like Clarisse and many of the others were most of the time. She was more a mix of fierce but kind at the same time. Nico wasn’t really much of a ‘child-person’, but Audrey quickly decided to trust him more than anyone and he could not figure out why.

It didn’t bother him, though. She asked a lot of questions, but unlike some others, seemed to know what not to ask about. She was overly happy when Nico got her a new sword, although it was Leo who’d made it and Nico had to remind her. She quickly picked up on the fact that he still wasn’t into the whole touchy-feely business when it was basically anyone else than Will, and kept her distance. She even came to him for help and advice about all kinds of stuff – except what he obviously couldn’t answer, like periods and other girl stuff.

Nico started thinking of her like a little sister. He was – well, almost – as comfortable around her as he was around Hazel, and it was surprising what she could make him do.

He summoned skeletons at her request, took her shadow travelling inside the camp, taught her Mythomagic and even drew tattoos with a marker on her arm after she figured out Nico had a few himself. Will had discovered them first when they were cuddling after the campfire the second night; a pair of wings on his back stretching from his shoulders and all the way down to his hips, plus a simple little half-moon behind his right ear. Will was almost upset that he hadn’t seen them the night before, but Nico assured him it was okay. They had honestly been too busy to notice anything.

“Why the half-moon?” he’d asked, and touched the little tattoo with his fingertips.

“Figured I’d get one for Bianca”, Nico had answered. “Since she was a hunter, and Artemis is goddess of the moon”.

Will had smiled and kissed his temple. “That’s sweet”.

 

Audrey was obviously not the slightest scared of him. She even had the nerve to come knocking at his door before sunrise. That was worse than Will the rare times he didn’t sleep in Nico’s cabin.

Nico had been happily asleep sprawled across Will’s chest when a knock on the door jolted him awake. He groaned as the person knocked again and proved it hadn’t just been the wind or whatever.

“ _What_?” he asked with as much annoyance he could lay in that one word. _This better be important_ , he thought to himself. It was not.

Someone opened the door and switched on the lights, and Nico made a groggy protest and hid his face in his pillow when the light stung his eyes. When he looked up he saw Audrey stand there, wide awake and grinning.

“Audrey, what the f…” he caught himself and sighed. “What do you want?”

“Well, I couldn’t sleep any longer and you promised me to help write a letter to my mom”, she said and was suddenly sitting on his bed.

Will started to stir now, too, and when he squinted his eyes open, he was obviously confused.

“You wake me up at…” Nico checked his watch. “… _five_ in the morning to write a _letter_?” Nico couldn’t believe his poor, sleepy ears.

“’s goin on?” Will asked groggily.

“Audrey can’t sleep and I promised to help her write a letter”, Nico mumbled down in his pillow. “Do we really have to do this now?” he asked Audrey, who was fishing a pen and a piece of paper out of her pocket.

“Please, Nico! I want to send it today before they collect the mail,” she pouted, and Nico cursed himself for even answering the door.

“Can’t I just send it with a bird later? It doesn’t have to be a dinosaur”, he offered.

“I don’t think mom would appreciate a skeleton delivering her mail. No, we have to do it _now_ ”.

“Oh my god”, Nico groaned and lightly pushed Will’s shoulder. “Will, you wanna help?”

“Mmm, no”.

“ _Wiiill_ ”, Nico pleaded. He really couldn’t do this on his own when he was this tired. Not when he was dyslectic as well.

“Ugh, fine”. Will sat up in the bed and yawned.

“Alright”, Nico said and sat up too. “Gimme that”.

Audrey’s face lit up in a huge smile, and she handed him the pen and paper. Nico rubbed his eyes before focusing on the letter.

“Tell me what to write. _Slowly_ ”, he added, and Audrey began to recite the letter she had obviously written in her head already, just couldn’t very much write down.

“Will, how do you spell it?” Nico asked after stopping Audrey. “I always mix up taught and though and tough”.

“Mmm… t-h-o-u-g-h”.

“And quite?”

“Q-u-i-e… no wait.” Will frowned. “Q-u-i-t-e”.

Nico occasionally stopped for words like that, and combined with his slow writing and Audrey’s long letter, it was almost time for breakfast by the time they had finished.

“There,” Nico said, letting out a breath and handing the letter to Audrey. “Finished”.

She beamed at him as she took it and jumped off the bed.

“Thank you!” She dashed for the door, but turned around in the doorway. “Sorry about waking you!”

Then she closed the door, and Nico slumped back on the mattress with a little smile on his face. He pulled Will down with him.

“I’m skipping breakfast”, he murmured as he closed his eyes.

“For once I think I’ll say the same”.


	6. Brothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i suck at naming chapters, just ignore it

“Nico?” Audrey asked one afternoon a few weeks later. She’d caught him alone sitting by the lake.

“Yeah?”

“Will you cut my hair?”

Nico raised his eyebrows at her in surprise.

“Cut your hair?”

She nodded, and although she was still smiling, there was something about her that wasn’t like usual. So Nico didn’t question it, but got up and followed her to the infirmary to find a scissor. She wanted him to do it in the Hades cabin so no one would come in and look, and Nico agreed.

“So how would you like it?” he asked after placing her on the floor in front of one of the beds while sitting behind her.

“Short. Like up to here”.

She drew a line with her finger just above her ears. Nico was surprised at the length she requested, as she had almost unusually long, dark brown hair.

“Alright. Can I ask why?”

She shrugged. “Just… no reason”.

Nico wasn’t sure if he believed her, but he didn’t press the matter. He knew how he felt about people asking questions himself.

“Okay. I already warned you not to trust me with a scissor, but we’ll try”.

She laughed a little at him, and Nico started cutting. His mom had taught him a bit when he was little, plus he’d cut his own hair a few times, but his skills were somewhat rusty. Still, he did the best he could, and the result was actually not bad.

When he was done, he went to fetch the mirror that hung in the bathroom and held it in front of her.

“Is it good enough?” he asked.

She smiled for real this time when she saw the result, and turned her head a little to both sides so she could see better.

“I love it”. She suddenly stood up and hugged him with her arms around his stomach. “Thank you”, she said.

Nico was caught off guard, but he found that he didn’t mind it, so he ruffled her freshly cut hair a little and smiled.

“C’mon”, he said softly. “Let’s clean this up and get some dinner”.

 

***

Few days later, Nico walked through the woods on his way to bunker nine to visit Leo. One of his students had miraculously managed to bend one of the swords the day before – he hadn’t seen it, he had absolutely no idea how – so he needed Leo to fix it.

Nico was somewhere around Zeus’ Fist when he heard the unmistakable sound of someone crying. He stopped to listen. Yeah, someone was definitely crying. He walked a little further – following the sound – and as soon as the pile of rocks was visible among the trees, he saw the little figure of a certain Ares child sitting on top of it with her back to him.

Nico couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. He’d known _something_ was wrong, but he hadn’t asked any further since the day he agreed to cut Audrey’s hair.

He shuffled his feet a little as he approached, to let her know he was there if she hadn’t already heard him. She sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, arms and forehead resting on them, and her shoulders were shaking with every little sob. She didn’t move as he sat down next to her on the rocks, but Nico was certain she knew he was there.

“Is it something you want to talk about?” he asked softly. He didn’t want to push her, as he recognized her misery all too well. Audrey lifted her head a little and wiped her nose, but didn’t look at him.

“I don’t know…” she croaked, her voice hoarse.

“I didn’t believe much in it myself a few years ago, but talking to someone really helps”, Nico offered. “It doesn’t have to be me if you don’t want to, just someone you trust”.

She sniffed and rubbed her eyes.

“I just… don’t want this”.

Nico tried fishing a more accurate answer out of her. “What is it you don’t want?”

“ _This_ ”. She gestured down her own body. “I don’t want this body”.

She sounded frustrated and miserable at the same time. Nico tried to be as gentle as he could.

“Do you mean that you’re not _happy_ with it, or that you don’t feel like you _belong_ in it?”

“I don’t belong in it”.

Audrey buried her head in her arms again.

“Is that why you asked me to cut your hair?” Nico asked. “Because you feel like a boy?”

"I _am_ a boy", Audrey corrected him, and Nico nodded. He carefully put a hand on - well - _his_ shoulder.

“Come here”.

He couldn’t believe he was actually inviting to a hug, but he was, and Audrey leaned into it without hesitation. He clung to him and started crying for real, the tears flowed down his cheeks like rivers. Nico didn’t know how long they sat like that, but eventually, he went silent.

“Nico?” Audrey asked.

“Mhm?”

“Can I, like… be your brother, kind of? I’ve always wanted a brother but I’ve never had any siblings – at least no one that _feels_ like a sibling”.

“’Course you can, little brother”, Nico smiled at him. Audrey was quiet for a few seconds.

“I don’t know how to come out to people”, he said.

“If you’re ready to let people know, you just have to tell them somehow. Do you want me to help?”

Audrey gave a little nod. “Yeah”.

Nico thought about it.

“Sonya’s your best friend, right?”

“Mhm”.

“Do you trust her enough to tell her?”

“Yeah, I just don’t know how”.

“Say that you want to talk to her about something serious, and just tell her that you're a boy, not a girl. She’s a daughter of Athena and a smart kid, and she’s probably a really nice person. She’ll understand”.

“Okay…”

“You could at least start there, and we’ll think of something after that, yeah?”

Audrey nodded, and wiped away the rest of tears off his cheeks.

“Is it okay if I talk to Will about it? I think he might be better at this than I am, so he can help, too”, Nico said, and Audrey nodded again.

“Yeah, that’s okay. But you won’t tell anyone else, right?”

“Not a soul”, Nico promised. “Not even a ghost or a skeleton”, he added, ruffling Audrey short hair, which extracted a smile.

“Come on”, Nico said, climbing down from the pile of rocks. “Let’s go see Leo. I bet he’ll make you a miniature dragon or something if you ask him”.

Audrey’s eyes lit up a little at this, and he followed Nico through the woods to Bunker 9.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, so I don't have any personal experience with being transgender, so please: if I've made any kind of mistakes or accidentally insulted anyone or something, let me know and I'll fix it. 
> 
> other than that, how was it? leave comments, please, I love them :D


	7. Probably more than capable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh it's so short I'm sorry I blame school  
> exams and shit...  
> sorry  
> it's done soon just so you know, maybe one or two chapters left

Strictly speaking, Audrey didn’t need all the assistance Nico gave him the time after he came out officially. Still, when Nico found he had a smaller sibling to look after – whether it was Hazel or Audrey – he tended to be a little overprotective sometimes. Although Audrey was probably more than capable of handling his problems by himself, he didn’t seem to mind most times when Nico assisted him.

There were a few campers that were a little weirded out by the whole transgender-thing, and sure, people could have their own opinions, but when they made the mistake of openly showing it, Nico just couldn’t stay away.

No one were stupid enough to do anything when he was with Audrey, but one time Nico was out of earshot, two Demeter boys had walked past Audrey and one had whispered something to him as they passed. Nico couldn’t be quite sure what he had said, but he knew what it was about upon seeing his little brother’s expression. He didn’t even bother to walk, just shadow travelled straight up to them, grabbed a hold of Jack Stephens’ – the one who had spoken – collar and shoved him against the tree that was so conveniently placed right there.

“That,” Nico growled at Jack, who looked more than mildly shocked, “- was a mistake you’ll regret if you don’t apologize to him _right now_ ”.

“I didn’t say anythi–”

“Lying isn’t gonna get you any closer to Elysium than picking on people will!” Nico snarled and tightened his grip around Jack’s collar. “­ _Apologize_ ”.

He let go of the boy, and Jack straightened his shirt before reluctantly turning to Audrey. The child of Ares had adopted a piercing glare that even impressed Nico, and Jack mumbled an apology before hurrying off with his friend. Nico didn’t quite understand how he did it, but Audrey smiled at him after the two Demeter kids were gone.

“That was cool”, he grinned, and Nico raised an eyebrow at him. “But you don’t have to do it, you know. I can take care of myself”.

“I know you can, I’m just being a good brother”, Nico assured him. “Besides, I’ve always hated those two guys.” It was true. “If it happens again, I can hold them and you punch”, he joked, and Audrey laughed.

“Good plan”.

 

When someone insulted him a few weeks later, Audrey delivered the punch himself straight away. A broken jaw and lots of blood, and Nico could not for his life understand how a nine-year-old kid could punch like that, but he did.

After that, those who were still bothered by him didn’t express it.


	8. Promise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last chapter

Nico and Will were sitting down by the lake, having found themselves a private little spot in the sunshine. Nico was perched between the other boy’s legs – like he often was – and Will was humming a low tune Nico couldn’t make out down in his hair. The sunshine felt so nice on Nico’s skin, but he knew it wouldn’t be able to scorch off the uneasy feeling in his chest. He sighed.

“Will?”

Nico almost felt a depressing déjà vu as Will hummed a response down in his hair. He was silent for a few seconds.

“I’m leaving again tomorrow”.

Will was completely still and silent for so long, Nico began to worry. Then, Will wrapped his arms tighter around his torso and buried his face in Nico’s neck. His skin turned wet from the contact, and Nico brought a hand up to stroke Will’s cheek. He wiped away a lonely tear with his thumb.

“Don’t cry, Will. Please”, Nico pleaded. “I won’t be long this time, I promise”. Will sniffed a little and just pressed his nose under Nico’s chin. The son of Hades stroked his hair.

“I love you”, Will murmured after a while, and _damn_ why did he have to cry like this? Nico could feel a lump form in his throat, and he swallowed to stop himself from crying.

“I love you too, Will”.

 

***

 

Nico looked at his watch. 2:36 am. Being as careful as he could, he slowly untangled himself from Will and slid out of his bed. He fished one of the little paper notes out of his pocket and put it on the nightstand beside his bed. Will was still fast asleep, snoring softly on his bed. Nico brushed his lips against the sleeping boy’s forehead ever so lightly, and travelled through the shadows to his last stop before leaving camp.

The Ares cabin was quiet – just as he expected. Nico knew where Audrey’s bed was, and navigated through the darkness without making a sound. He put the note beside his bed and reached out to stroke his sleeping brother’s hair, but stopped. He wasn’t sure if Audrey slept as heavily as Will, and he didn’t want to wake him up. Nico hadn’t had the heart to tell him that he was leaving.

With this decision, he turned away, and as he shadow travelled to his next destination, the words on both of the notes were floating through his mind.

 

_Three weeks, I promise_

_Love from,_

_Nico_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaand it's dOne!  
> sorry if the chapter was too short (it was very short, ugh) please forgive me.  
> I don't think long fics are my strength, but I'm glad at least some of you enjoyed it, leave a comment and tell me what you think:)
> 
>  
> 
> love from,  
> R


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